-
-
-
POV : Season 24
-
Air date: 21 Jun '11 - 17 episodesPOV is a Public Broadcasting Service public television series which features independent nonfiction films. POV is an initialism for point of view. POV is the longest-running showcase on television for independent documentary films. PBS presents 14-16 POV programs each year, and the series has premiered over 300 films to U.S. television audiences since 1988. POV's films have a strong first-person, social-issue focus. Many established directors, including Michael Moore, Jonathan Demme, Terry Zwigoff, Errol Morris, Albert and David Maysles, Michael Apted, Frederick Wiseman, Marlon Riggs, and Ross McElwee have had work screened as part of the POV series. The series has garnered both critical and industry acclaim over its 20-plus years on television. POV programs have also won major industry awards including three Oscars, 32 Emmys, 36 Cine Golden Eagles, 15 Peabody Awards, 11 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards, the Prix Italia and the Webby Award.
-
-
List of Episodes (17)
-
POV (1988)
-
1. Kings of Pastry
21 Jun '11When Chris Hegedus and D A Pennebaker, award-winning filmmakers of The War Room, Startup.com and Don’t Look Back, turn their sights on the competition for the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France awards, the country’s Nobel Prize for pastry, you’re in for a treat. In Kings of Pastry, 16 chefs, including Jacquy Pfeiffer, co-founder of Chicago’s French Pastry School, whip up the most gorgeous, delectable, gravity-defying concoctions and edge-of-your-seat drama as they deliver their spun-sugar desserts to
-
POV (1988)
-
2. My Perestroika
28 Jun '11My Perestroika is an intimate look at the last generation of Soviet children. Five classmates go from living sheltered childhoods to experiencing the hopes of Gorbachev’s reforms and the confusion of the USSR’s dissolution, to searching for their places in today’s Moscow. With candor and humor, the punk rocker, single mother, entrepreneur and married teachers paint a picture of the challenges, dreams and disappointments of those raised behind the Iron Curtain. Through first-person testimony, vé
-
POV (1988)
-
3. Sweetgrass
05 Jul '11Sweetgrass presents a riveting and poetic portrait of the American West just as one of its traditional ways of life dies out. Shot amidst the grandeur of Montana’s Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, the film follows the last modern day cowboys to lead their flocks of sheep up into the breathtaking and often dangerous mountains for summer pasture. Magnificently photographed and unsparingly candid, Sweetgrass discovers a world of harsh beauty and arduous labor, where humans still work in rugged intima
-
POV (1988)
-
4. Enemies of the People
12 Jul '11The Khmer Rouge slaughtered nearly two million people in the late 1970s. Yet the “killing fields” of Cambodia have remained largely unexplained. Until now, in Enemies of the People. Enter Thet Sambath, an unassuming, yet cunning, investigative journalist who lost his family in the conflict and spends a decade gaining the trust of the men and women who perpetrated the massacres. Sambath and co-director Rob Lemkin record shocking testimony, never before seen or heard, from the foot soldiers wh
-
POV (1988)
-
5. Biblioburro: The Donkey Library
19 Jul '11The Donkey Library is the story of a librarian — and a library — like no other. A decade ago, Colombian teacher Luis Soriano was inspired to spend his weekends bringing a modest collection of precious books, via two hard-working donkeys, to the children of a poor and violence-ridden province. As Soriano braves armed bands, drug traffickers, snakes and heat, his library on hooves carries an inspirational message about education and a better future for Colombia. His efforts have attracted worldwid
-
POV (1988)
-
6. Mugabe and the White African
26 Jul '11Mugabe and the White African, much of which was filmed clandestinely, tells an alarming story from one of the world’s most troubled nations. In Zimbabwe, de facto dictator Robert Mugabe has unleashed a “land reform” program aimed at driving whites from the country through violence and intimidation. One proud “white African,” however, has challenged Mugabe with human rights abuses under international law. The courage Michael Campbell and his family display as they defend their farm — in court and
-
POV (1988)
-
7. Steam of Life
02 Aug '11From a land of long, dark winters comes Steam of Life, a moody, comic and moving study of Finnish men as framed by the national obsession with the sauna. There, they come together to sweat out not only the grime of contemporary life, but also their grief, hopes, joys and memories. Beautifully and hauntingly shot, the acclaimed film provides a surprising glimpse into the lives of Finnish men and a remarkable depiction of the troubled and often reticent hearts of contemporary Western men. (60:00)
-
POV (1988)
-
8. POV Short Cuts
23 Aug '11A one-hour collection of documentary shorts by established and emerging filmmakers, including: Big Birding Day – David Wilson offers a glimpse into the world of competitive birdwatching, as three friends attempt to see as many species as possible in 24 hours. Flawed – Artist/filmmaker Andrea Dorfman's drawings burst colorfully into life as she animates the story of her longdistance relationship with a man whose profession — plastic surgery — gives her plenty of fodder. StoryCorps – StoryCor
-
POV (1988)
-
9. Armadillo
30 Aug '11In 2009, Janus Metz and cameraman Lars Skree accompanied a platoon of Danish soldiers to Armadillo, a combat operations base in southern Afghanistan. For six months, often while under fire, they captured the lives of the young soldiers fighting the Taliban in a hostile and confusing environment, where official rhetoric about helping civilians too often met the unforgiving reality of being a foreign occupier. Winner of the Critics’ Week Grand Prix at Cannes, Armadillo is one of the most dramatic
-
POV (1988)
-
10. Better This World
06 Sep '11The story of Bradley Crowder and David McKay, who were accused of intending to firebomb the 2008 Republican National Convention, is a dramatic tale of idealism, loyalty, crime and betrayal. Better This World follows the radicalization of these boyhood friends from Midland, Texas, under revolutionary activist Brandon Darby. The results: eight homemade bombs, multiple domestic terrorism charges and a high-stakes entrapment defense hinging on the actions of a controversial FBI informant. The film g
-
POV (1988)
-
11. If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
13 Sep '11If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front explores two of America’s most pressing issues — environmentalism and terrorism — by lifting the veil on a radical environmental group the FBI calls America’s “number one domestic terrorism threat.” Former Earth Liberation Front member Daniel McGowan faces life in prison for two multimillion-dollar arsons against Oregon timber companies. What turned this working-class kid from Queens into an eco-warrior? Marshall Curry (Oscar®-nominated Stre
-
POV (1988)
-
12. The Learning
20 Sep '11One hundred years ago, American teachers established the English-speaking public school system of the Philippines. Now, in a striking turnabout, American schools are recruiting Filipino teachers. The Learning is the story of four Filipino women who reluctantly leave their families and schools to teach in Baltimore. They hope to use their higher salaries to transform their families’ impoverished lives back home. But the women bring idealistic visions of the teacher’s craft and of life in America,
-
POV (1988)
-
13. Last Train Home
27 Sep '11Every spring, China’s cities are plunged into chaos as 130 million migrant workers journey to their home villages for the New Year in the world’s largest human migration. Last Train Home takes viewers on a heart-stopping journey with the Zhangs, a couple who left infant children behind for factory jobs 16 years ago, hoping their wages would lift their children to a better life. They return to a family growing distant and a daughter longing to leave school for unskilled work. As the Zhangs naviga
-
POV (1988)
-
14. Where Soldiers Come From
10 Nov '11From a small town in northern Michigan to the mountains of Afghanistan, "Where Soldiers Come From" follows the journey of childhood friends who join the National Guard after graduating from high school. It chronicles the young men's transformation from teenagers to soldiers to 23-year-old combat veterans. The film offers an intimate look at the young men who fight our wars.
-
POV (1988)
-
15. Racing Dreams
23 Feb '12'Racing Dreams' chronicles a year in the life of three "tweens" who dream of becoming NASCAR drivers. Though they aren't old enough for driver's licenses, Brandon, Josh, and Annabeth race extreme go-karts at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour in the World Karting Association's national series. The film is a humorous and heartbreaking portrait of racing, young love and family struggle.
-
POV (1988)
-
16. American Tongues
16 May '12
-
POV (1988)
-
17. American Gypsy
26 May '12There are over one million Gypsies living in America today, and most people don’t know anything about them. It is one man’s obsessive pursuit of justice and dignity that led filmmaker Jasmine Dellal into their hidden thousand-year-old culture. Charming and outspoken, Spokane resident Jimmy Marks defies widely held stereotypes–and his own people’s code of secrecy–to unlock a Romani world in America.
-
